Just Between Strangers

musings tossed into the void . . .

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Yesterday was...

...Blog Against Disablism Day. And I heard that and didn't think much either way, but then I read this brief tale, and was instantly reminded of the following poem, by a great poet and a friend for many years, Michael McNeilley. I bumped my previous post in honor of this more topical entry. We miss ya, cranky old man.

Roll _________________________________

I am not a man with wheels, although it is the wheels you see when I roll in.

I am not a chair that speaks. Still, you are surprised to hear a voice come from this chair,

as if perhaps, a miracle, I suddenly had healed, and next would stand and walk.

I am not chairbound, confined to a wheelchair, or physically challenged;

I will not be defined by my appliances: rendered by my limitations.

I am not some kind of disabilities recruiter, nor is my lack of leg power

contagious. But you back up as I speak, as though you might

have something I would take if I could reach it. Oddest of all: the way